Sheerness Berth 1 mooring piles

• Client: Peel Ports group
• Project Value: £1,500,000
• Dates: November 2023 – May 2024

Peel Ports London Medway is a port facility on the mouth of the Medway River, Kent. GPS MACS have been contracted to undertake an improvement programme to the Berth 1 mooring facilities. Previously Berth 1 has been used as a metal scrap berth, servicing open top vessels that were loaded using mechanical grabbers from the deck. The project covers installing a new fendering system to allow for substantially larger car freight RO-RO vessels to berth utilising the floating platform to the South of the berth.

GPS MACS scope is to remove all existing fendering along the length of the berth, including the existing steel piles. These piles will be cut at 1m below bed level. The constructive works are to install 9 in number new 1422 mm diameter monopiles, which will be fitted with fenders and tied back to the existing Berth 1 deck using a combination of chains and painted steel brackets.

One of the biggest challenges faced on this project was the dredging operation, due to Berth 1 previously being used as a scrap metal berth inevitably over the years of loading much of the scrap metal had ended up on the river bed, impacting the dredging process. In addition to this Sheerness port is an area with high possibility of unexploded ordnance meaning GPS MACS had a full time UXO team onsite carrying out survey dives and tests to ensure no explosives were within the working area.

There was a restriction on Berth loading capabilities meaning piling could not be completed with the gate fixed to the berth. GPS MACS conducted all piling from a piling gate welded to the deck of a crane barge. The barge was positioned using tugs and minor adjustments were completed using winches fixed to anchoring points.